, 1887-10-15
.'railing grown up poople, 1determined

TO explain the situation to a youngster of
about my own age, with whom / had
struck up a warm friendship. He was a
bright, bold eyed boy, strong, rough and
unimaginative-a true young Briton.
"When l had finished my story this
young gentleman's eyes sparkled.
"'We must kill the brute, Tom, he
said with decision.
Sat first l shranA from the idea and
suggested the adoption of some milder
measures, but Master Harry insisted, de-
claring stoutly that the only way to get
rid of a cat was to kill it.
'In the end my friend overcame my
scruples. 1 consented to the death of the
white cat, and we discussed the modus
operandi. Children are ~savages!'
Tom paused here, turned his face
farther into the gloom, and cleared his
throat before proceeding.
Several methods Of killing the white
cat were suggested, !" he continued, speak
ing with grim elaboration, as though he
were deriving a savage pleasure in scourg-
ing himself. 1--WE would drown her in
the sea; but that would nave necessitated
a great walk along the coast to escape
observation. The same objection applied
to the plan of throwing her from the cliffs.
eat last Harry hit upon what we con-
sidered an excellent idea. His father had
a pistol which he kept in his port
manteau. Fortunately, he was accus-
toned to leave the ~portmanteau open.
The arrangement was that in the after
noon Harry would contrive to secure the
pistol. Then we would seek the white
cat in the neighborhood of my aunt's
cottage, and, if luck attended lis, we
would carry her to a field at the back and
--Ghnnt hnr Nica hOuo uraran u rra0
"Luck did attend us-luek in the
shape of some mischievous cruel imp of
darkness. Harry managed to steal the
pistol-a revolver it was, with five cham
bers, all loaded. / curse his father to this
day for being such a careless idiot.
Harry, who was very business like,
brought an old sack with him. We
found u prey, after a long search,
sleeping in the warm sun on a low wall
at the rear of the cottage. She evidently
belonged to one of the neighbors, but her
ownership wa neve discovered. Harry
bounced upon her before she could es-
cape, and after a short but sharp strug-
gle, in which we were both severely
scratched, we had her secure in the
sack. Harry tied up the mouth with
strong string.
81 had hung back at first with a sort
of shame-a faint sense of the brutality
of our behavior. But the struggle had
driven all this away. The native devil
ry of the boy was ablaze. 1 was furi-
GUS, e1ultant; l drowned the hideous
mufhed sounds that came from the sack
with wild laughter; ! c anced round the
wriggling, writhing mass, and when we
had dragged it into the field / snatched
the pistol from Harry, who was very
d11iat 70 houa tho Grst shot 7 GraJ
kneeling close. 1t was the first time 1
had fired a pistol, but felt no shock. 1
remember a strange, piteous shrek, and
thes sack dancing weirdly in front of me.
l fired again., and remember a low graf
ing wall, and the sack being troubled for
a moment and then still.
Harry took the pistol from me-" CON
tinued Harding, wiping his forehead,
land went home. 1 went on to the
sands and tried to play with the boys
there, but couldn't. l was feeling hor-
ribly sick. The voice of the white cat
buzzed in my ears. The heaving sack
bobbed about between my eyes and the
sunlight
cat supper my aunt noticed that 1
looked ill and made me swallow some
medicine. When / had crept to my
room 1 sat down in the darkness neal the
open window to try and cool my head,
which felt like splitting. But it was at
my heart that the chief agony lay-the
agony of an unbearable burden, the
crushing, ~suffocating weight Of shame, Of
fear, of remorse. Can a child know these
things? you may ask. 1 answer that I
did; but l was not then a child. A
crime had aged me. l was an old man; a
murderer! Perhaps I was unlike other
boys. 1 felt that l would have given
anything, suffered anything, to have I'M
done what l a done-torture, or even
death.
Il sat for a long time, and at last, sick
and dizzy, 1 slowly undressed. Then l
thought, with a faint CLEAN of hope,
of my prayers. l sank down by
the bed, first sitting, then kneeling, and
tried; but nothing my mother had taught
me would meet such a case as that. At
last a few tears came and opened a way
of escape for the fearful weight that was
sitting me. Soon l was sobbing wildly
and unchecked, and beating my wet
face with my open hands. Once in my
paroxysm 1 stretched my arms over the
bed; they encountered something soft and
strange. l sprang to my feet in mad
terror, and rent the silence of the cottage
with q piercing shrek. My aunt hurried
into the room with a candle, and there,
coiled up in the center of the white
quilt, which was stained with her blood,
lay the body of the white cat.
1.-The fastening of the sack had become
loosened in her struggle; she had escaped
and crawled to her favorite resting place
to die.
"What 1 have told you,'' concluded
Tom, rising to go, sis the solemn truth,
so help me heavenl'
Should this reach the eye of Thomas
Harding, whose story l have taken the
liberty of telling to the world for the
sake of its moral, l wish him to know that
there is now no just cause or impediment
to his paying me a visit, and that 1 should
be delighted if he would do 30. The fact
is that a year after his last flying visit
we were blessed with a baby boy, upon
whom we lavished all our affection. 1t
was then that we discovered that the
Duchess was of an exceedingly jealous
disposition, and it was soon apparent that
either she or the baby must 60.
I mood NOT eav which want q Had